


Winchester Timing

by Anonymous



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Apocalypse, Dark Times, Dean And Sam Already have a teenage son, Family Feels, M/M, Pregnant Dean Winchester, Protective Castiel (Supernatural), Protective Sam Winchester, Sheltering In Place, labor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-05
Updated: 2019-08-05
Packaged: 2020-08-10 03:11:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20128405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Dean and Sam were always going to try again but they wanted to wait for the right time.Now, with the world being ripped apart by Chuck’s monsters, is the furthest from the right time that Dean can imagine, but it’s where they are.When the times comes, only he and Robbie are in the bunker, and Dean has to find a way to keep calm for both of them until Sam and Cas come home to help.





	Winchester Timing

**Author's Note:**

> I do want to warn of a few things before anybody reads on.
> 
> When Dean realises he is pregnant, he gives some consideration to not going ahead with the pregnancy. He’s low, because the world is ending, and he’s scared about the limited future that might await his kid.
> 
> And the ending also needs a warning: it is the end of the world, and there comes a point when TFW have to accept there’s just no more to be done, and retreat into the bunker to just wait it out. 
> 
> (If it helps any, though the story stops there, they survive and things do get better, and they all do get to that house by the beach. Our fam deserves a happy ending).

“Dad?”

Dean glanced at his watch, sitting on the middle shelf of the bathroom cabinet, and then down at the plastic stick in his hand. 

“I”ll be out in a minute, buddy.”

“Okay.”

He heard Robbie’s footsteps fade, and then he looked back at the watch.

Okay.

Okay.

Fuck.

The next time somebody came knocking at the door, it was heavier and higher than Robbie, and Dean didn’t even bother to look up when Sam came in.

“What’s up? You sick?”

Not yet. Dean glanced at the small waste basket under the sink, sighed, and reached in to grab the test.

He unwrapped it from inside the mound of toilet paper he’d hoped to hide it in, and then held it out to Sam. 

And still he kept his eyes on the wall, because holy shit if there was ever bad timing…

He just didn’t want to hear Sam say it, was all.

“Okay,” Sam said. He drew in a sharp breath, let it out slowly. “So.”

So. Dean felt the tight burn behind his eyes, his throat turning rough. Yeah, the whole damn world was broken, it was literally the end of days, and he had to choose now to get knocked up, and….

Sam was on his knees an instant later, pulling Dean into his arms. “Hey, hey, come on. We talked about this, right?”

Dean buried his face in his brother’s shoulder. “Not like this.”

Sam stroked his hair. “We didn’t plan Robbie, either, and things turned out okay, there. And we have Cas, this time, right? Our very own guardian angel.”

All true. But the world outside the bunker doors was a dark and twisted nightmare, and even though the three of them had faced down Lucifer, and Raphael, and Leviathan, and Amara and so many other things inbetween, this was like the final boss and Dean was under no illusion that they were going to make it through.

Sam eased him back, cupped his cheek. “Maybe we just need some time to get used to the idea. To decide…. Dean, do you want to keep it?”

Did he? Even presuming they survived, all of them, long enough for him to give birth, what kind of world was he bringing his kid into?

What kind of parent would he be knowingly subjecting a life to a future that wasn’t so much uncertain as already damned?

He didn’t have an answer, then, even though a year ago he would have been dancing through the bunker.

But that was a year ago, and things had changed a hell of a lot in the meantime.

He made Sam promise not to tell Robbie, or Cas, though he figured the angel would pick up on the fact that there was a change in Dean, but he knew Cas would support whatever decision he made.

And that just left making it.

++

“Don’t you think they should have been back by now?”

Dean shook his head, rubbing the small of his back. There’d been an irritating twinge there for the past two days, and even the vibrating seat cushion Sam had got him wasn’t doing a damn thing.

A little angel Grace would have gone down a treat, then, but Cas was off seeing Jody and Claire safely back to their home with Donna.

He’d be back before Sam, who was doing a supply run to some hunters way north of the town.

Neither of them had wanted to go, so close to Dean’s due date, but he’d chased them out the door.

When they’d talked about this, they’d all agreed to just carry on as normal, for as long as they could.

That meant the family business, more important now than ever. Maybe this battle against Chuck couldn’t be won (privately, Dean knew it couldn’t but he never said as much to anybody) but they were Winchesters, the four of them, and that meant they did not surrender.

He did a couple of deep breaths as the ache spread to his hips, and figured the baby was just reminding him it was there.

Like he needed that. He felt like a human blimp, and he was peeing enough to break world records.

Maybe having Cas massage his swollen feet when Sam wasn’t there to do it wasn’t the most embarrassing thing he’d endured, but it was up there on the list.

“Cas’ll be here tomorrow,” Dean said. “And your dad the day after. Trust me; they’ll be fine, kiddo.”

Robbie nodded, and went back to cleaning the shotgun Dean had given him to practice on. He was good, and fast; hopefully, he’d never have to actually use it but Dean wanted him to be ready.

The way things were going, it was more than likely he’d end up fighting by their sides, and that wasn’t what Dean had wanted for him.

He’d had plans of the four of them quitting the life, heading south, maybe buying a small place on the coast and just staying there.

He was going to finally teach that stubborn angel to swim and to sunbathe and they were going to be happy.

Instead, here they were, and he wondered how he’d ever forgotten that Winchesters were cursed - whether born into the family, or adopted into it.

Fuck. Enough dwelling on shit. He stood up, reaching across the table to tap his son’s head. “You hungry?”

Robbie nodded. He was fourteen, and perpetually hungry, and Dean was just glad this old bunker was stock full of supplies because he couldn’t face his kid ever having an empty stomach that he had no way to fill.

But as Robbie got up to follow him, Dean felt the pain in his back, and his hips, turn from a little more than nothing to a definite something.

It stole his breath away, and he had to brace his hands on the chair to stop from going down to his knees.

“Dad?”

Dean shook his head. It might have been fourteen years since he’d felt a pain like the one stabbing him through just then, but he hadn’t forgotten.

Not now, please, he thought, but the pain got sharper, and he bit down on a whimper.

He heard a sniffle, and glanced at his boy. Robbie was pale as chalk, his bottom lip trembling.

“Hey,” Dean managed. “Come on, it’s okay. How do you think you came into the world, huh? We’ll be alright. Gonna have to help me to my room, though, okay?”

Robbie slid under Dean’s arm; it was more thought than substance, but just having his son there helpled, even if the journey to his bedroom felt like it took forever, and every step was on jarring, uneven ground.

Finally, he was able to sag back onto his bed, a couple of pillows braced beneath his back.

Robbie sat on the edge of the bed, looking as scared as before.

“It’ll be okay,” Dean said. “I promise you, kiddo.”

He glanced at his phone. Even if he called Sam and Cas now, even if they dropped everything, they still wouldn’t be back any earlier.

And the last thing he needed was either of them, or both, being stupid and taking risks to get back sooner and getting killed (or turned into something from a bite or a scratch; that had been happening too, and some of the turned sounded like Croats) for their trouble.

No. If push came to shove, Robbie was here, and Dean could talk him through how to help..

He just hoped before it came to that, his angel and his brother would come walking through that door. 

++

Dean was pretty sure he actually hadn’t remembered what the pain of childbirth was like, because if he’d recalled it being this bad he’d have cut Sam off permanently.

He panted through the peaks, trying not to look like he was being torn in two from the inside out; every time Robbie heard him groan, he looked ready to burst into tears, and Dean wasn’t ashamed to admit that if that happened, he’d probably lose his shit.

For some reason, this time, he was struggling to keep calm.

Maybe it was just everything. Before, when Robbie had been born, they were safe at Bobby’s, and Sam had been there to help deliver their kid, and even if Cas had then been a fierce emissary of Heaven, Dean had been pretty sure the angel would show up like some kind of emergency midwife if shit went south.

It didn’t, and they managed.

But even then, with the apocalypse looming, it hadn’t felt anything like this.

Because the apocalypse was actually here, they were in the middle of it, and he was alone in the bunker with his son, his body urging him to push a baby into the world, while his brother and their angel were out there in the middle of it.

He should never have let them go. What if they didn’t make it back? Or what if they did, but they’d been infected by something and the next time he heard from them, they were clawing at the door?

“Dad,” Robbie said. “Dad, it’s okay. I’m here.”

He reached out to take Dean’s hand, and there was strength in his grip that was either new, or Dean just hadn’t noticed before.

He nodded, felt the panic not so much subside as get boxed in a little.

“I know,” he said. “I’m glad you are.”

“And we’ll be okay.”

“We’ll be okay.”

He wasn’t about to lie to his son, so, yes, they’d be okay.

++

Cas was back before dawn, and Robbie ran to him the minute he heard the bunker door closing over.

The angel was at Dean’s side moments later, and he quickly took off his coat and jacket, rolled up his sleeves, and had Robbie stay by Dean’s side, mopping his brow.

Bearing down was hard; Dean was sure it hadn’t been like this before, and that spurred him into panic, but Cas just reached for his hands, and held them until Dean settled enough to look at him.

“I’m here, Dean,” he said. “And I won’t let anything happen to either of you.”

There was the gentle swell of Grace through him then, through their bond, and Dean knew Cas meant it.

He would make sure they were both okay.

And they were. 

++

There came a point where it just wasn’t safe to go out anymore.

Jody, Donna and Claire came to them, and once they arrived, Sam closed the door over for what was probably the last time.

Cas sealed it, a combination of magic and Grace, and then they settled down to ride things out.

The hydroponic garden the angel and Robbie had set up in the lower level (who knew their kid would turn out to have a green thumb) would, with the MREs and food stocks the family had built up themselves, last them a long time.

If it came to it, and they had to venture out again, then they would, but Dean was pretty sure it’d be a while before it came to that.

In the meantime, he and Sam had a little girl to raise, Charlie Jo, and a family to keep safe for as long as they could.

They’d be okay.


End file.
